الِاسْمُ كَلِمَةٌ دَلَّتْ عَلَى مَعْنًى فِي نَفْسِهَا، وَلَمْ تَقْتَرِنْ بِأَحَدِ الْأَزْمِنَةِ الثَّلَاثَةِ.Basic Nahw definition- Define Ism (noun) in basic Arabic grammar.
- Recognize common signs that show a word is an Ism.
- Identify Ism in short Arabic phrases and sentences.
An Ism is a word that indicates a meaning in itself and is not, by its form, tied to one of the three times.
Arabic words are first divided into Ism, Fi‘l and Harf. An Ism names a person, place, thing, quality, idea or another meaning without itself carrying tense. Words such as مُحَمَّدٌ, كِتَابٌ, مَسْجِدٌ and عِلْمٌ are Ism. The easiest way to recognize an Ism is to understand its meaning and then look for the signs that nouns accept.
Common Signs of Ism
عَلَامَاتُ الِاسْمِ
Among the common signs of Ism are: accepting Jarr (جر), accepting Tanwin (تنوين), being called with a particle of vocative such as يَا, accepting ال, and being something to which a judgement can be attributed (الإسناد إليه). A word does not need to show every sign; one valid sign may be enough to establish that it is an Ism.
01الِاسْمُ
Ism / Noun
A word with an independent meaning that is not intrinsically tied to tense.
02الْجَرُّ
Jarr
The genitive state; one of the signs associated with Ism.
03التَّنْوِينُ
Tanwin
The doubled final vowel sign heard as an added n-sound.
04النِّدَاءُ
Vocative
Calling or addressing someone, commonly with يَا.
05الْإِسْنَادُ إِلَيْهِ
Attribution to it
A judgement or predicate can be attributed to it, as in مُحَمَّدٌ مُجْتَهِدٌ.
- Arabic words are divided into Ism, Fi‘l and Harf.
- Ism indicates a meaning in itself without intrinsic tense.
- Jarr, Tanwin, Vocative, ال and attribution to it are common signs of Ism.
- A single valid sign can be enough to identify a word as Ism.